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I met with Kirkland urban planners in 2003 for a school research project. I was pretty shocked at their flippant approach to planning. The guy we spoke to aknowledged that mall-development was harming local businesses but said, and I quote, “you can’t stop an $8-million Walmart.” He appeared thrilled to note that traffic had backed up all the way to Lakeshore on the day the Walmart opened.

In comparison, planners in Beaconsfield were strictly regulating everything up to what materials citizens could use to renovate their homes and were trying to get residents to accept higher density Transit-Oriented Development around the train stations. It was strange that, while these two towns had essentially the same regulatory powers, one group of planners seemed to feel completely powerless in the face of “big development”. I confess i’ve been pretty turned off of Kirkland ever since.